Despite finding a lovely camping spot last night, I didn’t fall asleep until after 1:30 a.m. Too many aches and pains!
This morning we hit the trail by 8 a.m. The first mile or two were lovely. Ed said it was all downhill to the car. Ha! I’d looked at the elevation, and it appeared we faced two bigger hills. In reality, it was about four.
At our age, and with me needing a knee replacement, we were moving slowly. But the scenery was spectacular! In some places it was hard to discern the trail, as we were hiking amid scrub and rocks. But we made it.
Making Our Way Toward Rawlins
Once on Sage Creek Road, the going was much easier. I’d opted to do the Rawlins road walk, as last year a lot of CDT hikers told me there was almost no water on the official route, and when they found some and filtered it, they still got sick. I believe this is because the water/land are still pretty contaminated from past mining.
The first few miles on the road featured a lot of steep uphills and downhills. But then it became more of an undulating path.
Ed would drop me off, drive the Jeep ahead 3 miles (4.8 km), then walk back to meet me. This worked great. Whenever I hit the Jeep, I took off my pack and spent a few minutes relaxing. I have knee and lower-back issues, and my medical team said to take off the pack as often as I could.
Now Departing Deep Jack Trailhead Area
During the day, I met some interesting people, which is what I love about hiking. The first was a young couple from France doing the Great Divide Mountain Biking Route. They gave us trail intel for the path ahead, while I gave them intel for what was to come. (The Great Divide Route roughly parallels the CDT.)
Later, a couple in a red truck pulled over to offer me water. He said he was a trail angel 
and had just dropped off some water ahead. He thought he recognized the trail name Snowshoe.
Turns out I’d emailed him a few months ago, asking questions about the Rawlins road walk. He also had me on his calendar for tomorrow, wondering if I’d contact him. People are so kind!
Not too much longer we came upon his (and a guy named Jim’s) water cache, which also included fun food, like Hostess cupcakes and Oreos. Trail magic really uplifts your mood!
Day Is Done
When I decided I was too tired to continue, we headed toward the Little Sage Creek Dam, where someone with the county or BLM – I can’t recall which – said there was good camping. The road to the dam got sketchier and sketchier, and the wifi stopped, so we backtracked to a pull-out spot to camp.
It’s SUPER windy here, so it was tricky getting our tents set up without blowing away. We’re supposed to be here again tomorrow night, but we’ll see.
Snowshoe
Today’s Miles: 19.1 (30.7 km)
CDT Miles to Date: 1,156.5 (1,861.2 km)
CDT Miles to Go: 1,943.5 (3,127.8 km)
